David’s FWD MBB Recumbent

My son, David is building a FWD MBB recumbent. The last couple of years has produced several successful home-built MBB from which he has drawn inspiration. The Cruzbike conversion has also influenced his choice of frame and design. For the frame he is using a Walmart 24″ suspended MTB Tiara Pro. The Tiara Pro has a lightweight aluminum Y frame with room for a curved wood seat.

Rear suspended stays and front forks were modified to hold 700 c wheels and fit the aluminum Tiara Pro frame. An anAtomic curved seat was constructed to fit Tiara Pro frame in a reclined position. My construction process of the seat can be found here and a link to the PDF instructions are included on that page.

A 3/4″ conduit seat post was fabricated with a shim to fit the down tube and the curved wood seat attached.

David used a hydraulic floor jack to spread the front forks. He gave it a little bend, backed off and checked. Put them back in with the other side up and repeated the process.

David modified the rear triangle from another bike so that he could put a 700 rim from a road\race bike on the back as well. He will remove these brakes and stick regular road brakes on it as well.

This is the latest picture I have of the MBB FWD sans the 700c wheels. Last week I went to visit David and work on my suspended stick bike. While there, David took the MBB on a ride around the neighborhood. On his return down the street, he look like he was running near 30 mph although he complains of it still being a bit shaky.

This weekend I’m to return to finish my stick bike and I’ll get recent pictures of the MBB and a video of David riding.